17 things the Class of 2016 has never done, will never do or can’t remember

Here in the South, school’s about to start. Up North, classes won’t begin until after Labor Day, but students in some Southern districts go back as early as Aug. 1, meaning, I suppose, that our students will be about a month smarter than your students, so we’ve got that going for us.

I love the Mindset List. It’s a pop culture checklist to remind professors who they’re dealing with. Last year’s list, for example, pointed out that as far as the Class of 2015 was concerned, there has always been an Internet and U.S. tax forms have always been available in Spanish. (I think Beloit’s Mindset List also helps remind professors that they’re getting old.)

What got me thinking about all this was a story I read a couple days ago about record sales. It said old albums are outselling new ones, and I wondered if that’s a generational thing, because my 12-year-old never buys albums. She gets songs on iTunes, and that got me thinking about everything else teens and tweens don’t do that my generation did.

So, No. 1 on the list: Buy an album just to get a single. During the CD era, labels didn’t release a lot of singles. If you liked a song, you bought the album. If the rest of the album sucked, you dubbed it onto cassette and traded it in.

No. 2: Trade in their old CDs. I have no data to back this up, so this is purely anecdotal, but back in the ’90s, it was pretty easy to find new CDs at the used record store. When I swing by used record stores now, it’s mostly crappy music from the ’80s and ’90s. Part of the problem, of course, is that you can’t sell old downloads.

No. 14. Get a free pizza from Domino’s. It’s been 19 years since Domino’s dropped its 30-minutes-or-it’s-free guarantee because of the “public perception of reckless driving and irresponsibility.”

No. 15: Stay up late to watch some random B-movie on the late show. As far as the Class of 2016 knows, late night isn’t for cheesy movies. It’s for talk shows, news shows, sportscenters, “Seinfeld” reruns and infomercials or streaming shows on Netflix.

No. 16: Stay up late enough to watch a TV station sign off, because TV stations don’t do that anymore.

No. 17: Use an actual “clicker.” Hey, kids, back in the day, remote controls were mechanical devices that clicked! The loud clicking sound is what turned on the TV and changed the channel. If you couldn’t reach the clicker, you could just jiggle your dad’s car keys.

If you think of anything else the Class of 2016 hasn’t done, won’t do or can’t remember, let me know.

Some interesting trivia on that list. It occurs to me that for these kids, musicians like Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, not to mention the Beatles and Doors are as old to them as Benny Goodman and those guys were to us. And that’s probably the biggest mindset issue I can think of.

Which reminds me of a comment a friend made a while back. We were complaining about “contemporary” “music” and I said, “I sound just like my father.” My friend said, “Yeah, but your father was wrong and you’re right.”

Hi there, Huffygirl suggested I stop in. I’m about to post a “back to school” post and will link to this.
What else– the class of 2016 has always had to take off shoes and belts at airports, can’t make many foods from scratch, can’t fix anything. See my post about graduates: ttp://cyclingrandma.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/help-wanted-recent-graduates-with-tools/

Another word that no longer makes sense is “taping”, as in taping a tv show. I remember life before PVRs, when you had to put a tape in the VCR to record your show. I’m 17, and I only barely remember that.